Improved pneumatic street-railway car



No. 84,447. Patented N0v+ 24, 1868.

fitatw gtateut C. W. WAILEY, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, ASSIGNOR TO NEW.ORLEANS PNEU- MATIO-PROPELLING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

Letters Patent No. 84,447, dated November 24, 1868.

' IMPROVED PNEUMATIC STREET-RAILWAY CAR.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, O. \V. \VAILEY, of the city 0 New Orleans, parish of Orleans, and State of Louisiana, have invented a certain new, useful, and improved Mode of Propelling Cars on City Railroads; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawing, making a part of this specification.

My invention consists of the application of a pneumatic engine as a motor to the propulsion of the cars of city railroads, when this object is effected by placing said engine, and the tanks for containing the compressed atmospheric air for operating the same, permanently on the cars, or, in other words, of the combination of a pneumatic engine with a railroad-car, on which are carried receptacles for holding compressed air to work said engine, which air is forced into said receptacles either by the direct action of suitable airpumps, or is drawn from a stationary reservoir, kept constantly filled by a stationary steam-engine, through the agency of such air-pumps, the said tanks being composed of paper or its equivalent, and constructed upon a plan of which I am the inventor.

But my invention will be better understood by referring to the drawing, which represents, in perspective, an ordinary street-car, with the main parts of a pneumatic engine, and the tanks, two in number, and made of paper, to holdthe compressed air -to operate ,the same, attached thereupon.

The car A may be of any construction, and any form of pneumatic engine may be used to propelthe same; but I prefer, and design to use, the pneumatic engine of my own inrention as the best, or, in fact, the only operative engine, of which I have any knowledge, that.

is workedby means exclusively of compressed atmospheric air.

B may be supposed to be the cylinder of such an engine, which, by means of its piston, not shown on the drawings, and proper gearing, E, connected therewith, rotate the wheels of the car and give it motion.

The pipes O 0 connect the cylinder with the tanks D, there being, of course, although I have. not deemed it necessary to show the same, or to describe it, a valve, as in steam-engines, to prevent or to allow, as the case may be,a flow of the compressed air through these pipes into the cylinder B;-

The tanks D may be of any convenientor suitable form, and be placed on top of the car, or under the seatsthereof, or, indeed, wherever they may c0nveniently be bestowed, but I prefer that they shall be cylindrical, and to put them on the top of the roof of the car, as shown on the drawings, because they are thus stronger, and more completely out of the way, than if they were of any other form, or placed anywhere else in, under, or on the cars. But, whatever may be the form or size of said. tanks, they must be made of paper,

or its equivalent, and according to the plan of construction to which Ihave referred as having been invented by'me.

These tanks are calculated with reference to the distance the car is to run without a fresh supply of air, and should always, therefore, be large enough to h old something more than the exact quantity required to propel the car the prescribed distance, in order to guard against the contingency of accidents, and-have on hand power enough to start the car whenever it shall be necessary to stop it, and drive it at a uniform speed from the beginning to the end of its journey.

The compressed air for working the engine may be put into the tanks by the direct action of powerful airpunips, worked by steam or water-power, if the latter .can be conveniently applied, or it may be drawn from stationary reservoirs that are kept continually full, by the same means, at the requisite compression, to fulfil the behests of the engine for the distance the car has to run.

A compression which will develop an expansive energy or force equal to three hundred pounds to the square inch, is, perhaps, as great as can readily be effected or managed usefully, and hence I do not at present contemplate going beyond that limit. I have found, in fact, by actual experiment, that a-suflicient quantity of atmospheric air to run a car ten miles may be carried in two tanks, eighteen inches in diameter and fifteen feet long, at a density or pressure of less than two hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch; and there being no reason why the capacity of the tanks may not be increased to double the abovestated proportions, it is plain that a sufficient quantity may always be carried to run a car from one end to the other of the longest city railroad in the world.

My invention reduces the cost of running the cars on city railroads to less than half of what is entailed by the use of horses or mules, and it maybe applied to every car now in existence, whatever may be its peculiarities of construction, without the slightest diiliculty, and at little more than the cost of a single mule or horse. Hence, it is not only an effective, but an economic invention.

Having thus described it,

What I claim, and desire 'to secure by Letters Patent is- The combination of a street-railroad car with a pneumatic engine, when the latter is operated by compressed air, that is contained in tanks composed of paper or its equivalent, and which are carried on the car, substantially as herein described, for the purpose set forth.

0. W. WAILEY. Witnesses:

H. N. J nnmns, Burns R. Rnonns. 

